The Deep End

Today I rode my bike to work.

Not the biggest accomplishment in human history, but I'm pretty darn proud of this addition to my personal history. I would guesstimate that it is around 20 km from my house to Riverton. I've been telling myself that I would try it out one day, biking to work, but thought maybe I'd first to a trial run on a week-end.

I don't think I ever would have done that trial run. I would have come up with other things to do, or made excuses, and I doubt I ever would have gone.

This morning, I got up and decided the heck with it, I'm going to jump on my bike and just do it. It's not like I have any choice but to keep on going once I've started. I also have no choice but to bike home today as well, because Sarah will be working at Spruce Sands tonight and won't be able to pick me up and drive me home. And that's where the title of this post comes from.

Sometimes we have to "jump into the deep end" to push ourselves to achieve new things. We can analyze things, think through the pros and cons, but sometimes we spend too much time on analysis and not enough time on action.

And just to finish up, here is what I learned about biking to work in the country:
- Fresh gravel is the enemy of the cyclist
- My shoulder bag is not as suited to cycling as I thought it was
- Head winds suck (well, technically they blow I suppose)
- People don't always slow down when they pass you on a gravel road
- Nature is loud

- What a great way to start the morning!! (in all seriousness, no sarcasm here, it was a great way to start the morning)

Robert Munsch

It has come out in the news over the last couple of days that children's author Robert Munsch has been battling drug and alcohol addictions; he announced now that he is 4 months clean and sober.

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/books/story/2010/05/18/munsch-support.html?ref=fh,www.mymanitoba.com

The article I've linked to above talks about the positive feedback Munsch has received for coming clean on his addiction, and how most people are being very forgiving and understanding.

While I'm glad to hear he is 4 months sober, I do have to wonder though at the acceptance he is receiving. Robert Munsch is a children's entertainer, through his books and the tours he goes on. As a children's entertainer, whether he intended to be or not, he is a role model for young kids.

I have to wonder if people would be as accepting if it came out that a school teacher was battling drugs and alcohol. Would that teacher, who is also a role model to children, get such acceptance? Or would they get run out of town? Is Munsch's celebrity the reason he is receiving accolades for revealing his struggle?

PATH Facilitation

Last week I took part in a PATH Facilitator training course. PATH stands for "Planning Alternatives for Tomorrow with Hope", and is planning tool that can be used for individuals or groups to help define goals and map out the way to achieve those goals.

I thought I'd write a little on the subject, and to give you a visual, I'm going to use this PATH done by a group of Interlake recreation, health, and sport professionals done in March of 2009 (that I participated in) as my example.



Looking at that image, I'm sure it is pretty difficult to discern what is going on. Let me break it down for you.

The first thing you do is title your PATH, to give some focus. We were discussing physical activity in the Interlake, which our title reflects. After that you being to "dream", and that is the images at the bottom of the image. Normally the dream would be on the right-hand side of the PATH, but for space reasons when I redid this on the computer I put it on the bottom.

The next step is to then create some Goals, which are in the circle on the end (which I like to call the Pac-Man section). Any goals that are listed need to be "Positive and Possible"; we don't want to set goals that cannot be achieved (eg. "We will build a multi-use facility in Geysir in 2 months!"), and we want our goals to be phrased positively.

We then jump to the "Now" section on the far left. The Now is just some quick facts about the current situation, but they don't necessarily have to be directly related to the Goals.

We then go to the "Enroll" section; this is where we list the people we need to get on board to make these Goals happen. When I did this on the computer I colour-coded everything, so that if you read the blue text, it is all for that one Goal.

"Stronger" can basically be divided into three sub-categories: Communication, Information, Celebrate. Basically, who do we need to communicate with and how will we do so, what information needs to be gathered, and how are we going to celebrate our successes.

Then we move to "First Steps" and "Half-Way" (Half-Way is the arrow head, I forgot to label that when I made this graphic over a year ago). We work backwards from here; we look at our Goal, and figure out what needs to be done by the Half-Way point (if our Goals are to be completed in March 2010, and we did the PATH in March 2009, the Half-Way point would be September 2009). Then, we go back further, and figure out the very first thing we need to do.

After that, participants are asked to express in one word how they feel about the PATH; those are the words along the very bottom of the graphic. All participants in the PATH are then asked to sign the poster (not replicated on the computer graphic), as a way of taking ownership of the plan.

It's a neat process to do, and as I said, it could be done as a personal planning tool, for a business, non-profit organization, whatever! I am now a trained facilitator in the process, so if you find yourself interested, let me know! I'm hoping to do a PATH or two in the community shortly; 2 facilitators are required to do a PATH, but fortunately for me 3 other people who work in Riverton also took the training!